Although not entirely true, we categorize sushi lunch or dinner as healthy and guilt-free meal. The sushi/ nigiri/ sashimi are healthy indeed but in most cases we could not help to enjoy them with a good bottle of chilled sake (Yep! We are guilty!!). We simply find it 'incomplete' if we just have the sushi with hot ocha or soft drinks. On top of that, as we do not read Japanese characters, it kind of a challenge that we could not resist to choose sake by pointing finger randomly, not having a clue the difference from one to another. Yet we never get disappointed.
Hardly get disappointed by the sake it does not mean we never get disappointed by the quality of sushi. We are very passionate when it comes to good sushi, so we can be quite fussy. Based on our several visits to Sake No Hana, we can now safely say, this restaurant is one of the finest. It serves high quality food, fresh and consistent in maintaining quality.
We had edamame to snack with. We then normally would go for white miso soup, but since we have not tried red miso with clams, this time we ordered a couple of those to taste. It was ok, but we would rather stick to white miso with mushroom. Snow crab tempura was very good, so fresh we could taste the sea and the batter was amazingly light.
The most important part of the meal finally arrives, a tray of Otoro Nigiri that was melting in the mouth, Salmon Nigiri that was definitely high quality of fresh salmon, Ikura Gunkan fresh from Scotland, pops in the mouth, the best we have ever tasted. Could not stop just there, we ordered Prawn Tempura hand roll, we were expecting Salmon Skin but it's not always available during lunch time. We managed to taste both in different occasions and they were very good. On top of that we had Mango and Soft Shell Maki that turned out very tasty as well. In between enjoying sushi we shared a plate of seaweed salad served with pickled courgette, so gorgeous!
Still able to manage some dessert, we tried Coconut Charlotte (white chocolate, mint, basil, coconut and mango paste) that paired with a glass of chilled Plum Wine (Umeshu). Delicate sweet treat that was an ideal ending to a lovely lunch.
Our only few criticism about the presentation of the restaurant is a little bit too bright and a little impersonal. But then it may come from the Japanese idea of simplicity. Service has been good to start with but can be a bit slow once we have gone through our first part of the meal. Apart from that, we certainly would go back there again.
Sake No Hana
23 St. James's Street, London SW1A 1HA
Phone: +44 20 7925 8988
Website: http://www.hakkasan.com/sake-no-hana/
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